“There seems to be a preconceived idea that all electronic music is the same and repetitive, but we beg to differ,” says EatUrAura keyboardist Chris O’Connell.
Instead, the Holyoke band, which formed in 2007 and completed its current lineup in 2010, has taken great pains to practice a more improvisational brand of electronic music, a genre that even the band itself has had a difficult time describing accurately.
“It’s been a great amount of debate lately, trying to find the words that describe enough yet don’t restrict,” says O’Connell. “In short, we’ve come up with ‘intelligent responsive electronic dance music’—driving drum beats with grooving bass lines all wrapped up in layers of synths.”
Featuring additional members Nate Jacques (bass) and Matt Bergeron (drums), EatUrAura first developed as an idea after O’Connell became intrigued by the sounds he heard while listening to the bands The Disco Biscuits and The New Deal. After buying himself a synthesizer, O’Connell soon joined forces with Bergeron and added Jacques several years later. Coming up with the group’s name took far less time.
O’Connell says, “Sitting around at practice, our good friend Monkey was reading a text he had written to someone that said, ‘eat your aura.’ And we all thought it was a great statement he made and turned it into our name. As to the meaning, trying to break apart and understand it will certainly cause an aneurysm. We do not recommend it.”
Since its inception, EatUrAura has followed a very organic approach to developing its music. While finding roots in a style closer to that of a jam band, the group has also worked to push itself along a more electronic path.
“It’s grown subconsciously, like the universe does what it wants with us. Having a lot of improvisation, our original sound was much more jam-band, but honing in on our true creative direction, we’re much more electronic,” O’Connell says. “Mostly we jam, completely open, or someone will have an idea that they’ve been working on. We take it as far as it wants to go, then listen back to the recordings and refine and arrange into songs.”
For those wishing to play some of these tracks at home, EatUrAura has just finished recording its first album. The band is looking forward to playing a release party for the record later this summer, but in the meantime, crowds can catch the group at its own weekly music series in Northampton.
For more information on EatUrAura please visit www.facebook.com/pages/EatuRaurA/314992575211849 and www.reverbnation.com/eaturaura.
